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If you have poor night vision, you may have a certain fear about driving after dark, especially with rain on your windshield and bright lights coming at you.

Being able to drive safely in the dark is very important, because during short winter days, you can hardly go to or from work and not drive in darkness at least one way. If you struggle with poor night vision or night blindness, here are 5 tips for safe driving after dark.

Increase Your Visibility

It may sound odd to advise you to clean off your headlights, but consider the street film and dirt that cake other parts of your car. That film and dirt covers your headlights too, and it decreases your visibility. Keeping your headlights clean increases your visibility, even if it’s just a little bit.

While you are at it, consider wiping clean the inside of the front windshield. We often clean the outer windshield, but forget that the inner windshield can get dirty. If you don’t believe me, just wipe a white tissue across the inner windshield.

Chances are you will see a dark film left on the tissue. When you spend time in your car with windows up, over time, your exhale contributes to that film.

Another way to increase your visibility is to remove your sunglasses when the sun begins to set. Visibility is more important than fashion. You need every bit of light coming to your eyes to benefit your eyesight. And that goes for darkened windshields too.

If your vehicle has a one, and you have difficulty driving in the dark, you might want to get it replaced.

Reduce Your Speed and Anticipate

To give yourself more time to react to obstacles and anticipate road hazards, reduce your speed. You need to see pedestrians and bikers in plenty of time to avoid them, and you want to see exit signs in time to exit safely.

Going a slower speed allow you more time to evaluate obstacles and more time to maneuver out of threatening situations.

Drive for Your Weather Conditions

Rain at night means you will have glare as you face oncoming blinding lights. To help you focus on something other than the blinding lights of oncoming vehicles, follow the line on the right edge of the road with your eyes.

This helps shield you a bit from the brightness of approaching headlights.

If it’s raining heavily, your front wipers may not be helping you enough. Be sure they are replaced as needed. Also, your windshield may get coated with standing water when trucks pass you.

If you have trouble seeing during heavy rain or because of splash up, find a safe spot off the highway and wait it out. It’s not safe to pull to the shoulder of the road to wait. You can be hit from behind by other drivers.

Pull totally off the road to park at a service station or parking lot and wait for a change in the weather or road conditions.

Night fog creates another driving difficulty, and a dangerous one. For better visibility, you will want to keep your headlights on low beam and consider taking routes that have less potential fog or traffic.

Get Your Vitamin A

Researchers have known for years that vitamin A improves night vision. But you should ask your physician before taking high doses of this supplement.

If you are getting enough green leafy vegetables, and you are taking a daily multi-vitamin, chances are you are getting a reasonable amount of this vitamin already.

A carrot is rich in Vitamin A, that’s why it is very useful for your eyes. Make juice with special juicers for carrots and don’t worry about night driving.

Park Your Car

Probably the best night blindness driving tip is to avoid driving at night if your eyesight is compromised or you have too much driving fear. Why take chances? If you don’t need to drive at night, don’t.

Leave the errand until tomorrow, and park your car when you run out of daylight hours.

If you don’t see well when driving at night, consider following these 5 driving tips: increase your visibility, reduce your speed, anticipate obstacles, drive for the weather conditions, get your vitamin A, or just park your car.

Do you sometimes feel like a yo-yo when trying to lose weight? The truth is, it is not an uncommon phenomenon. Losing weight . . . and keeping it off is one of the hardest things we have to do and face in our lives.

Don’t you just envy those folks who can seem to eat anything and everything we are not allowed to eat, and they do not gain an ounce.

It has become quite popular with severely overweight people to opt for the gastric by-pass surgery to lose weight. This is not the safest of surgeries though people may feel it is a quick fix to lose weight quickly and permanently.

However, if you have gone through this risky surgery, it is extremely important to follow doctors’ orders because the weight can easily come back, even with this surgery, if you return to your old eating habits.

I have seen many successes with this surgery, but I have also witnessed several women who went through all this pain and suffering of this particular surgery only to gain all the weight back. This is a very unhealthy and serious move on your part.

Many of us have also have experienced the weight gain associated with the task to quit smoking. Of course, it may not be a big weight gain but something we sure do not want to do. It doesn’t have to happen.

You first have to realize that smoking is much worse for your health than a couple of extra pounds. You probably are not going to be able to lose weight at the same time as you are trying to quit smoking. Once step at a time.

I have found, to quit smoking, turn to some non-caloric habits in order to get healthy while quitting. Whether you are quitting cold turkey, through help with your doctor, a patch or the um, plan ahead to keep any weight gain to a minimum.

Keep a lot of sugarless gum on hand at all times, keep a straw to chew on (out of habit), stock your fridge with a lot of healthy munchies, anything to keep your hands busy with healthy options other than that “smoke”. It may not happen overnight but it does work and you will be much healthier.

When it comes to the real issues with weight loss and gain, there always seems to be an underlying issue as to why we cannot be totally successful. Most of the issues have to do with stresses in our daily lives, lack of self worth, and trying to live up to the images put forth by the media.

If this is a constant issue for you, the suggestion would be to get some kind of support with any emotional issues either through professional therapy, Overeaters Anonymous, or at the very least start journaling and exploring your feelings and emotions. Emotional issues generally will not go away on their own.

In fact, they usually get worse as the weight keeps going up and the self-esteem goes down.

Maybe a nutritionist can get you on the right road to successful weight loss without the yo-yo effect but without digging into those underlying issues mentioned, you may be fighting a losing battle.

If you are always struggling on the weight loss ladder, you do need to have enough confidence in yourself to be a success.

Just come to the realization that it is not you but an underlying issue that can be resolved if you are willing to get the help and assistance you need to build your self esteem and make you realize, you do deserve to be the best that you

The following information has been gathered and compiled through personal experience while traveling, teaching T’ai Chi, Qi Gong, Chinese Herbal medicine, martial arts and other health related subjects. The article also contains feedback from students and anecdotal information from readers of my columns.

The following are my opinions and deductions from those sources..

If you own a juicer you have the tool(s) necessary for ridding yourself of chronic bladder and kidney infections. Healthy kidneys are necessary for skin health and a clear complexion and if that’s your objective, a juicer may be your answer.

One of my alternative healer friends uses the following techniques to help her patients. Juice enough raw carrots to make one pint of juice and combine that with one pint of raw spinach juice. Each quart must be consumed that day. The juice has to be fresh daily.

To juice spinach, roll a few leaves up like you would roll up pieces of paper.

Then stick the leaves, stem and all and stem first, into the juicer.

The stems contain lots of vitamins, minerals and have a high water content.

We make our juices using blenders from Vitamix, it’s just more time consuming:

First, cut the leaves into small pieces using a good pair of scissors and chop the carrots into small pieces also.

Add a small amount to the blender along with just enough reverse osmosis or distilled water to blend.

Add more spinach and carrots as the blender liquifies the ingredients.

After blending, strain the liquid and drink immediately.

If you suffer from frequent night trips to the bathroom, you may be getting a message that you have a bladder infection or it may be that you aren’t drinking enough water. “Not enough!”, you say, “My problem is too much water. That’s why I end up spending so much time walking down the hall in the dark.” Let me explain.

If you drink less than eight glasses of water a day, you increase the acid pH factor in the urine. In children, it’s usually the opposite. Without enough water the waste products and urine from the kidneys becomes too concentrated and irritates the bladder.

When that happens you feel the urge to urinate. One sign of excessive acidity in the urine can be a burning sensation upon urination. Fried and starchy foods, white bread, sugars, carbonated beverages, fresh meat and especially processed meats, all raise the body’s acid levels.

Eating most fruits, melons, beans, potatoes and milk, many milk based processed foods raise acid levels, can help alkalinize the body. One of the latest fads for alkalinizing the body is to dissolve baking soda in a glass of water and drinking it once a day. If you have a problem digesting your food because of low hydrochloric acid, this process will really cause problems.

An overly alkaline pH can lead to bladder infections and creates a friendly environment for E coli bacteria. The majority of information I’ve found indicates the baking soda everyday fad can lead to a serious imbalance in the body’s pH. Either way, too acidic or too alkaline, an imbalance in pH isn’t beneficial for long-term health.

An exercise known as Kegels can help with bladder control:

Tighten the muscle you use to control urination, the pubococcygeus, and hold it under tension for the count of five.

Relax and repeat fifteen times, three times a day.

Next, tighten, and release the same muscle as quickly as possible fifteen times, three times a day.

Then, bear down on the muscle without using the stomach muscles, ten times, three times a day.

There are times in life when we will feel health problems that we have no idea how to properly treat them. For most of these minor occurrences we take a trip down to the local drug store and buy whatever cream or pill they have, being marketed to people with our problem. Sometimes you might feel some relief the next day and think that the product has worked.

When in fact actually the pills and creams are not really solving anything. All that the medications do is kill the yeast cells, which provide momentary relief from the discomfort of a yeast infection. It helps first to understand the root of the problem. When your body is producing yeast it is safe to assume that you are out of natural balance.

What you have to do to make sure that your body never has to produce yeast again is to get back in that precious natural balance that will lead to greater health in all areas. Luckily there is a way of eating that will help restore you body’s natural balance after a few months. It will scrub your body clean and make you feel healthy.

Eating a raw food diet for a yeast infection can be quite the challenge for most people. It requires a total departure from there normal way of eating that can make it a difficult transition for some people to cross. However, if you stick with it you will start to see some results and these results will lead to greater health as time goes on.

This is the simplest diet on the planet. You eat raw vegan fruits, veggies, nuts, and anything else that can be eaten raw and does not involve an animal. You have to avoid meat , cheese, eggs, and any kind of processed food. These foods will only add more toxins to your body.

Raw food is packed with enzymes. Enzymes help the body with the many chemical reactions that need to take place in order to keep you alive. Cooking food kills these enzymes as well as many of the nutrients and vitamins.The easiest way to get started, so the diet is not overwhelming, is to add raw food to every one of your meals.

Each recipe should serve one adjust proportions as necessary for more people, or hungrier people.

Raw juices may be acquired from your local natural foods store, but I prefer to make them at home in a juicer — there’s something very delectable about fresh juice.

The Pure Fruit Basics

1cup raw orange juice,

one fresh banana,

1/2cup strawberries (or the berries of your choice) and half a peeled mango,

plus some crushed ice if you’re so inclined.

This one is simple, user-friendly, and loaded with fresh fruit carbohydrates for immediate energy. You can also substitute peach for mango.

The Immune Rocket

1/2 cup raw carrot juice,

1/2 cup raw apple juice,

one fresh banana,

1 cup spinach,

kicker ingredients: garlic and ginger.

Now, there are two ways to get the garlic and ginger into your smoothie. The way I recommend, should you happen to have a juicer handy, is to push one clove of garlic and a segment of fresh ginger about the size of a marble into your juicer with the apple and carrots.

The other way is to simply blend them up with the rest. If blending, I recommend cutting the green shoot out of the center of the garlic clove first, and peeling the ginger.

Garlic offers immune protection and improves heart health, while ginger is a potent anti-inflammatory and adds a delicious spice.

The Avo-Lution

1/2cup raw apple juice, one fresh banana,

one fresh small avocado,

1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice,

1/2 cup crushed ice.

The avocado smoothie may sound odd, but it’s a traditional treat in Southeast Asia, and your first exposure will win you over. It can be a delicious, creamy light meal in a glass. If you have access to raw coconut milk, or want to cheat, you can replace the apple juice with coconut milk.